Dogwalker Denies Posing: Who Is the 'Smiling' Woman in the Hollywood Hills Decapitation Photo?

Lauren Kornberg, the professional dogwalker who discovered a severed head in the Hollywood Hills this week—the one that a paparazzi agency is shopping photos of with a smiling mystery woman posing next to it—says she never snapped pics of the gruesome find. She does, however, have a theory about who did.

Reached by phone at dogwalking agency L.A. Pet Care, Kornberg (seen above on Entertainment Tonight) said the stress of the discovery has rendered her unable to eat or sleep. She emphatically denied taking or posing in the photos, but cast suspicion on the man who called 911—and his dark-haired female companion.

"I didn't have a camera. I didn't have a cellphone. My mother and I stopped two hikers who used their cellphones to call 911," Kornberg explained.

The hikers then inspected the head, concluded it was real, and called 911, she said. All four discoverers—Kornberg, her mother, the two hikers—stayed in the area several minutes longer.

"I believe they snapped the photo," Kornberg said, noting that she was too busy controlling her dogs to pay much attention to the hikers, who did not give her their names. "I had nine dogs on a leash, and they were bouncing around like crazy."

"I thought I saw him snap a few pictures. And I said, 'Did you take photos?' and he said 'I tried,' but that it didn't work or something. Right after they did that, they were like, 'OK bye.' I think they had taken a shot and left."

When we first spoke to the photo agency peddling the death photos, Lauren Kornberg's identity was not widely known. Armed with video stills from her more recent interviews, we asked the agency for further comment today, but they declined.

The couple has not been publicly identified, and Kornberg didn't get their names. She did, however, get a few biographical details.

"They said they just moved here, I believe from Wisconsin. At the time I felt sorry for them, to come to Hollywood and have this happen." She pauses. "Clearly I'm not sorry for them now." [image of Kornberg via Entertainment Tonight]